At 31, science writer Jonah Lehrer had reached literary stardom. The New York Times best-selling author was a staff writer at the esteemed New Yorker magazine.

People packed auditoriums to hear him talk about neuroscience and how the mind works when it comes to being creative. But that’s all crashing down now thanks to a few manufactured quotes and a die-hard Bob Dylan fan.

[2:33] “As to how he could think he would get away with this, I think it’s just a matter of being powerful or maybe having some sort of illusion of power that excepts you from scrutiny,” says New York Observer Senior Editor Foster Kamer.

Kamer says a freelance writer who happened to be a Bob Dylan fanatic scrutinized a few quotes in Lehrer’s latest book attributed to the legendary folk singer. The writer, Michael Moynihan, kept pressing Lehrer on the origin of the quotes until, finally, the expert on creativity admitted that he made them up.

[4:51] “You know, for a guy who talks so much about imagination you would think that he would have the imagination and creativity to simply write around it instead of the creativity to make up new Bob Dylan quotes,” Kamer says.

Lehrer resigned from his position at the New Yorker this week. While a former editor is coming to his defense, Lehrer's entire body of work is now being scrutinized.

soundoff(52 Responses)

skastenbaumcnn

Steve Kastenbaum checking in here, the reporter who put together this report. Thanks for listening to it. I think the thing that kept resonating with me as I worked on this story was why would he do it? As someone who interviews people everyday I can't imagine ever making up a quote for someone in order to prove a point. Jonah Lehrer is arguably an extremely smart individual. Why would someone of that caliber do something like that. Obviously, he could have made his point without putting words in Bob Dylan's mouth.

If I ever become famous, the first thing I'm stating is that I've borrowed literary quotes, ideas, prose, and text, often shamelessly from others. If I remember, I'll give the original authors credit, if I don't, I just don't.
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I blame the fact that media is corporate owned and that it requires the end-user to be dazzled, fascinated, and overwhelmed with sensational information. I don't make excuses; what he did was reprehensible. But I can almost bet that he was pushed to produce something riveting so that it sold like hotcakes. Like health care, journalism should have never been a business driven by corporations.

And car insurance as well. Anything we are essentially mandated to use should not be driven by a corporation – period. While I fully embrace capitalism, mandating the use of something publicly traded ensures that the entity basically can never go out of business and would certainly lead to price fixing...

"So he misquoted Bob Dylan, and that is supposed to end his career? What's the big deal?" The big deal is he lied on several occasions in order to make money. Maybe you're cool with people making things up for money, but I (and most sane adults) take issue with that sort of professional behavior.

I consider myself a sane adult and applaud anyone who can make money by lying. The entertainment for me is watching the mindless eating it up. Example: The recent incident in which hundreds(???) of people walked across burning hot coals to only find themselves getting burned.

There is a difference between a misquote and inventing a quote. The first can be an honest mistake. The second is essentially dishonest. If a journalist without honesty is a journalist who does not have the trust of his readers.

No, it's not that he misquoted Dylan. He *made up* quotes. Fabricated them. Put words together and said Bob Dylan said them, when he didn't. That's called lying. And it doesn't even matter that it was Bob Dylan the writer lying about, it could be anyone. He fabricated information, and that's why it matters.

What was the quote he attributed to Dylan? And better yet, what was his point in (miss) using it? Those two facts are left out of the discussion. The only thing this story is pointing out is he fibbed and was caught. I'd rather know a little more than that.

Jonah Lehrer is nothing less than brilliant, and of course that makes others jealous and they just look for any excuse to attack his standing. The so-called 'made-up" quotes have been a common technique of fictional biography for at least half a millennium and do not represent any kind of deceit or misconduct on the part of the author. The detractors may think they're clever, but I for one will forever tune them out. Hopefully Jonah can recover quickly and start producing more fascinating work.

Are you for real! That is just a terrible attitude to have. "Oh, every one has been doing it for ages, so it's ok to do it". Well, news flash! A small minority of people have used it for centuries, but that just reflects poorly on them, it certainly doesn't mean it is ok! It's just plain stupidity!

He also stole stories from his own work. That might not seem like a big deal but it's still considered unacceptable. It's as if people have no threshold for how professionals are supposed to act. Brilliance and ethical behavior is not mutually exclusive.

We have too many science 'writers' and too many science 'media personalities', and not enough scientists. Too many Neil DeGrasse Tysons and Bill Nyes, and not enough Clyde Tombaughs and John Stewart Bells. This reminds me of Siguorney Weaver's line in Ghost Busters – 'You're not a scientist, you're a game show host.'

We need MORE TV science types not LESS – and we need them on PRIME TIME. Enrollment in forensics got a big boost by having CSI shows. When our culture supports and celebrates science young people will give that line of work more consideration. What is currently "celebrated" on TV? Lots of sports, medicine, lawyers, cops, sex, drinking, etc.

Neil Degrasse Tysons is not a scientist? I would think having more mainstream personalities with stellar backgrounds in hard sciences would be a good thing. Maybe more kids would want to grow up pursuing that side then trying to be the next Kim Kardashian.

Did you read the article? He didn't plagiarize, he made up the quotes and attributed them to Dylan, two completely different things. If you did read the article, you might want to pick up a dictionary.

There was no plagiarism in his latest book, and it is that book which is at the center of the controversy. Previous to that there were idiotic accusations of "self-plagiarism" in his science blogs, which is as absurd as it sounds.

There is no defense for this. It's really sad when people claim to be reporters, but have no idea of the integrity and HONESTY required for the job, like Journalism 101 teaches. There's a disgusting grasping for money and fame, and those without scruples and a solid grounding in journalism try lies like these to get ahead. There is also a stunning sense of entitlement out there right now, as if everything and anything should be forgiven and forgotten. Nope. Once you've shown you cannot be trusted to do the critical, central and very basic task as a reporter, namely telling the truth, then you are toast forever. So enough CNN with the "few manufactured quotes" line – even ONE made-up, invented, fictional quote is too much if you are trying to sell nonfiction. The Lehrer "Imagine" book is poorlly written to start, making ridiculous leaps in trying to connect disparate things, so disappointing to start and now we learn that we wasted our time reading madeup junk? Unforgiveable. Deception and manipulation are OK in the movies and the carnival funhouse, because we pay for and expect deception there, but it's not OK in reporting news, science or quotes from anyone. And hey CNN, has anyone asked Bob Dylan how he feels about being used as a fictional character, with invented words so some self-absorbed person pretending to be a journalist can make money off his reputation? Unbelieveable.